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Light, Middle Weights Have Strong Day
The No. 11 Northwest College wrestling team had five wrestlers place among the top four on Saturday at the Trappers’ home invitational tournament. Cody Vichi (125), Jeff McCormick (149) and Colton Thornton (157) each placed third overall in the event.
Zach Loveless (141) and Diorian Coleman (165) were both fourth for the Trappers.
“This is such a good crew,” said Northwest College wrestling coach Jim Zeigler. “They wrestled really well. I’m pleased with how guys like Loveless, McCormick and Thornton did. Guys like Vichi, Coleman and (T.J.) Guild also had a strong performance for us. I see a lot of promise from this group.”
Vichi’s day started with a major decision loss to the University of Wyoming’s Drew Templeman. The Rock Springs freshman bounced back though to score a 6-2 victory over Great Falls’ Luke Schlosser and battled to a 1-0 win over UW’s Alex Baca for third place honors.
McCormick’s day was considerably longer at 149, where he was forced to perform in six matches before scoring his third-place finish. McCormick began his day with a win by fall over Larry Schmueser of Colorado State-Pueblo. From there, he suffered a 5 1 loss to the University of Great Falls’ Mike Vassar.
McCormick bounced back on the elimination half of the. bracket with a win by fall over a North Idaho opponent, followed by back-to-back decision wins over opponents from four-year schools. In the third-place match, he scored an injury default win as he attempted to avenge his earlier loss to Vassar.
McCormick is a freshman from Kamas, Utah.
McCormick’s former high school teammate, sophomore Colton Thornton, finished 4-1 to also place third. Thornton scratched out an 8-7 win over UGF wrestler Chad Cebulski begin the day, then fired off a major decision victory over Conner Pelzel.
Great Falls’ Ryan Leonard knocked Thornton into the elimination bracket with a 3-1 defeat, but one of the few Northwest sophomores on this year’s roster battled back with an injury default victory to reach the third-place match. Thornton won that match by a 9-5 final score over Nick Schmidt from UGF.
Fourth-place finisher Zach Loveless finished the day 4-2, with his only losses coming to Wyoming’s Cole Mendenhall.
Loveless started the day with a second-period win by fall, but then got caught on his back two minutes into his first encounter with Mendenhall. Loveless recovered to pin Northwest College teammate Brenden Turner, who was wrestling unattached over the weekend. He added a 1-0 win over Wyoming’s Cole Ford before advancing via injury default to the third-place match and a rematch with Mendenhall. This time, Loveless was able to go the distance, but still fell short by a 6-2 final count.
Coleman split his four matches on the way to a fourth-place finish. After opening with a 9-6 win over Wyoming’s Jace Jensen, he lost by a point to Great Falls grappler Shawn Lau. He recovered with a 10-4 win over Billy Goforth, also of UGF, before dropping a 3-1 decision to Trevor Grant of Colorado State-Pueblo.
Guild (133) and Cole McArthur (174) both also went 2-2 but, due to the brackets, did not reach the top four. Jarrett Baker, an NWC sophomore wrestling unattached, also finished 2-2 at the tournament.
The Trappers also saw a potential placewinner in Randy Andrews (174) have his day cut short by an injury. Andrews opened with a 15-3 major decision over North Idaho’s Johnathen Dennis before falling 12-2 to the NIC’s Kyle Sweedman. After suffering what Zeigler described as a “tweaked shoulder” in that match, he was medically defaulted from the tournament.
The Trappers Colby Kloetzer was also forced to default from the tournament after coming down with an illness.
“I really, really enjoy working with these young kids and they’re really buying into the system,” said Zeigler. “The majority of the guys who wrestle for us this year will be freshmen.”
Weather played a role in Saturday’s tournament, reducing the field size as Montana State- Northern was unable to reach Powell from Havre, Mont., to attend.
“That may have been a blessing in disguise in some ways though,” said Zeigler. “it allowed us to get done by 5 p.m. or so and got folks on the road an hour or two quicker.”
Zeigler also commended his tournament staff for helping achieve the early finish.
“As a team and organization, we did a great job of hosting the tournament,” said Zeigler. “There wasn’t a single hitch throughout the day. We were able to just get guys out there wrestling.”
North Idaho, Colorado State- Pueblo, the University of Great Falls, the University of Montana
Western, the Air Force Prep and the University of Wyoming all attended Saturday’s tournament.
Northwest returns to action this week with duals at the University of Great Falls and Montana State-Northern. The Trappers won their only prior dual this season, delivering an impressive head-to-head win over Western Wyoming to begin the year.
This week’s duals will also be the Trappers’ final action before the Thanksgiving holiday.